My experience has been that parts for plumbing are the least expensive, then
electrical more expensive, and wood the most expensive.
But this could easily switch around! Say that instead of replacing a drain
pipe with a plastic drain pipe (materials inexpensive), you are installing a
new bathtub with the kind that has water jets. Well the cost of the bathtub
would be way up there in relation to the labor.
Same with electrical. You could be installing a bare light bulb fixture -
takes 10 minutes and the fixture costs $3. Or you could be installing an
outdoor commercial high pressure sodium fixture - takes 10 minutes and the
fixture costs $450.
"grasshopper" wrote in message

There is no ratio. What you want is the work done right the first time. So
long as someone doesn't charge you $200 for ten minutes worth of work,
whatever seems fair to fix your problem is in line.
Doing the homework to know what the going rate is falls upon you. If one
guy wants $20, and one wants $50 an hour, you must figure out what the
difference is, and if it's worth it. There is no cut and dried ruler.
Unless, of course, you're talking to a cardiologist, lawyer, dentist, or
brain surgeon. My heart surgeon charged $42,000 for 8.5 hours. He was
worth it in my mind.
Steve

You've already received quantitative analysis of your question (it's
unanswerable), now I'd like to throw a little qualitative analysis
your way.
Let's say you determine the _perfect_ formula for calculating what a
contractor should charge for a project and you've tweaked it so that
it perfectly reflects material costs and labor conditions in your
area, and your particular project's site conditions and other
constraints.* The resultant number means exactly nothing unless you
get a qualified contractor to agree to that number, to agree to what's
included for that number, to agree on the level of quality and to not
take your unsolicited input on how they should be pricing jobs as
being a red flag that you will be a problem customer.
R
* If you do manage to figure out that formula, forget about trying to
save money on the modular home projects as you'll be able to earn
truly ridiculous amounts of money selling the formula to contractors.

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